The threatening text messages started in the summer, before school even began.

By the time classes started at Annapolis High School this year, Lashon Patterson's daughter was so traumatized that each morning she begged, almost always in tears, to ditch school.

"You've got all of annapolis after you," says one of the text messages. "All the skaters hate you. All of a-high hates you. ... I'm going to split you in the [expletive] jaw and when you're on the ground. I'm going to kick you in the ribs until the cops come and arrest me."

Despite efforts by the 15-year-old girl's parents and school officials, she was assaulted in school about two months later after classes.

Schoolyard bullies - and how school systems deal with their threats - are an age-old problem. In the past decade, schools across the country have become increasingly aggressive in dealing with threats of violence, instituting zero-tolerance policies after two Colorado high school students went on a deadly shooting rampage inside Columbine High School.

But just as protecting students from violence is paramount, school systems are trying new strategies and recycling old ones to deal with disciplinary issues, such as employing police officers at schools, using peer mediation and conflict resolution, and raising the bar for behavior that constitutes severe disciplinary measures.

The Anne Arundel County school system, in an effort to decrease suspensions and expulsions and bring greater parity along racial and economic lines, established stricter guidelines two years ago for implementing certain disciplinary measures.

The school system has narrowed the definition of what constitutes a mandatory expulsion recommendation to four instances: distribution of drugs, possession of a firearm, use of a weapon and a serious physical attack, according to Leon Washington, the director of safe and orderly schools.

Bob Mosier, a school department spokesman, said despite those efforts, the school department is vigorous in punishing perpetrators. "These actions should be in no way construed that we're leaving people in buildings where they can potentially cause harm to others in a volatile situation," Mosier said.

"If we have a situation where there's a clear danger to a student and we have a student we feel is responsible for that danger, do we not discipline that student just to keep those numbers down? Absolutely not. That is absolutely not the case."

Just a week into the school year, the Annapolis High School teenager was already trying to get out of school. Patterson, the girl's mother, asked that her daughter not be identified to protect her privacy and to prevent her from being teased or bullied at her new school. On Sept. 3 at 9:12 a.m., she texted her father: "Dad, I might need you to come get me. I can't deal with this. I'm about to break down."

According to a doctor's note dated Sept. 11, 2008, the teen was suffering from "anxiety/stress related to school."

"She is very disturbed, not sleeping or eating well, missing her lunch period at school," Dr. Ram Rastogi wrote. "She is depressed and separating herself from school and classmates."

Patterson went to court in early September and sought successfully a "peace order," akin to a restraining order, to keep the student away from her daughter. It expires in March. Still, he continued to harass her.

The alleged author of the text, a fellow student at Annapolis High, eventually followed through with his threats of violence toward the 10th-grade girl, choking her and punching her in the face in a stairwell of the building after her fourth-period English class on Oct. 28 a few minutes after the school's 2:05 p.m. dismissal time, according to the girl, her parents and a court summons.

The girl called her mother and sought medical help at the nurse's station, but when her mother arrived and wanted to call the police, she was told to make the call from her home.

"The school told me to go home and call," Patterson said. "Isn't that crazy? I said, 'This happened on school property. Shouldn't we call the police?' They stated it was the end of the school day, and there was nothing they could do."

Washington, the director of safe and orderly schools, said Annapolis High as well as most of the county's other high schools have school resources officers on site who would assist in such a situation. "If something like that occurs, the SRO would be involved," he said. "Typically, if a physical attack occurred, the school would contact the police."

The assault, which left the 15-year-old girl's nose bloodied and her fear sky-high, turned the tide in their dealings with the school department, her parents say.

Patterson said she talked by phone and in person to several school officials - from the school's principal to a deputy superintendent - in September and October, but was told a transfer was not an option. She acknowledged that the school system tried to mediate the troubles - through meetings with the boy's parents and the police - but she says they should have taken stronger action against the student, such as suspending him.

After trying in vain for two months, their daughter was granted a transfer to another school. But, the parents argue, school officials idled too long and only moved after their daughter was assaulted and the parents threatened legal action.

"It took her to be assaulted to get this done," Patterson said, referring to her daughter's transfer. "And I don't want to see another parent have to go through this. My daughter's an AP student, and she's missed so many days. It's really dropped her grades. Fighting with the school every day, it's like, where are my tax dollars going?"

The student accused of assaulting the girl and his parents could not be reached for comment. The boy has been charged with first- and second-degree assault and failure to comply with a peace order. A hearing at the Department of Juvenile Services is scheduled for Wednesday. School officials, while declining to comment in detail about the case because of student confidentiality issues, said school administrators are vigilant in monitoring threats of violence against students - on and off campus - and won't hesitate to take corrective action, including disciplinary measures such as suspension and expulsion.

"If there's a situation that the school becomes aware of and has the potential to spill over into the school day, then certainly the school gets involved," Mosier said. "You're in school six hours a day and you're out of school 18 hours a day, so the potential for things to begin out of school ... is certainly there for the flaming up of things."